In a process of whole power-economical development, alcohol is gaining increasing importance as a fuel or fuel additive. Alcohol for such purposes can be produced from cellulose or cellulose-containing biomatter in two stages, i.e. by first hydrolysing cellulose to sugar and then fermenting this sugar to form ethanol. Whilst the fermentation of sugar to ethanol is technically well mastered, the hydrolysis of the cellulose remains a critical procedural step which determines the overall profitability of the method.